A winding journey along a rewarding career path

Some people plot out their careers decades in advance and then put their plans into action. Kerstin Born is not one of them: she recognises that her career path has been shaped by good fortune and by some chance encounters.

Since October 2006 she has been executive director of CSR Europe – an organisation that promotes the cause of corporate social responsibility, arguing that businesses can and should be both sustainable and competitive. Its membership includes more than 70 multinationals and 20-odd national organisations.

Looked at from her office in Brussels, Born’s career path might seem like a good preparation for her CSR tasks. But the reality was nowhere near so predetermined. She was born in Hamburg and grew up in the countryside south of the city. She went to university in Gottingen, where she read history – because, as she puts it, at that stage she wanted to get into journalism. She had already done internships at her local newspaper. During her studies she spent six months at university in Caen, Normandy. Then, after completing her intermediate exams, she went to Bonn to finish her university studies, graduating in 1990.

Changing sides

A chance encounter led to Born’s first job – a friend of a friend told her about a vacancy doing maternity cover in the press unit of the European Commission’s office in Bonn. It helped, she said, that after her time in Caen her French was good. But she left behind her ambition to become a journalist. “I had changed sides – and I quite enjoyed that.”

Towards the end of her contract, she approached the head of the office for help in applying for another job. Instead he steered her to a job that she did not even know existed. “Do not be afraid to ask,” is her advice.

In September 1991 – less than two years after the Berlin Wall came down – she went to work for the state of Berlin. She spent her time going to working groups of the second chamber of the federal parliament, the Bundesrat. She sat in on the EU’s negotiations with Austria, Finland, Norway and Sweden, which led to the EU enlargement of 1995 (though without Norway). She came to Brussels to represent the Bundesrat and report back on the progress of talks on chewing tobacco, car seat-belts and other sticking-points.

International role

After four years, she was looking to go abroad, but, perhaps ironically given the later course of events, she did not want to go to Brussels.

She was accepted by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAF) to work on international co-operation and was posted to Johannesburg in 1995 in the early years of post-apartheid South Africa. Nelson Mandela had been elected president only the previous year. The KAF was looking to encourage the growth of legal and political institutions – for instance to train local councillors and build up local government.

She returned from South Africa at the end of 1998. She had maintained some good contacts from her Bundesrat days and that brought a job in Bremen.

At that point she jumped out of public and political service into the world of business – as a speechwriter for the head of DaimlerChrysler Financial Services, based in Berlin. She had to learn a lot, very fast, about the business world and its interaction with governments and other parts of society.

After four years, she made an internal move to work on a talent management project, which brought her even closer to her current concerns with corporate social responsibility. How did she find her current job? She saw a job advertisement in European Voice.

So, with a combination of experience in public service, in business, in international relations, in a multinational, accustomed to using different languages and to promoting dialogue, she finds herself managing a small team in Brussels, enjoying the chance “to ensure that it is a healthy organisation”.

She is apparently unconcerned as to whether concern for corporate social responsibility (CSR) will be squeezed out by the economic crisis.

“We have more companies struggling, which means they are reviewing their memberships. We need to be more competitive and show our value to the organisations. But at the same time the need for CSR is undeniable in difficult times.

“At times like this you will see if companies are serious about their commitments.”